Television Interviews

Father Abbot And Baby Bungo Having A Conversation

Illustration © Christopher Denise

Brian Jacques has been interviewed many times on British television. What's special about these interviews is the unique British wit and sense of humour which allows Brian to be himself.

Interview by Paula Danziger, children's author with a semi-regular spot on the British children's show "Live and Kicking"

The first part of the interview takes place inside an old medieval Liverpool church.
The interview opens with Paula reading from Redwall (Collectors' Edition), the prologue before Chapter 1
'The first mice who..... to .......the legend of Redwall Abbey.
Paula sits alone as she reads this.
PAULA: It's been 10 years since Brian Jacques wrote his first Redwall book and I'm here in Liverpool to find out more about the book and the author.
(Brian walks in. He is wearing white trousers, a white blazer, a red shirt and a red tie with a red handkerchief in the blazer pocket.)
BRIAN: Hi Paula, welcome to Redwall Abbey!
PAULA: Great to see you, how are you doing?
BRIAN: I'm doing great!
PAULA: Why did you ask me to come here to meet you?
BRIAN: When I was a kid, I could look at this from the outside. It looked like a place of adventure and when I grew up, I stored this useless information in my head. That was how Redwall Abbey was born.
PAULA: How did you begin writing the books?
BRIAN: I started writing Redwall for some very special people. I'm going to take you to where they are.
They move out of the church and are now seen on a car journey.
The interview continues in the car. Paula is looking at the map in the Redwall Riddler.
PAULA: So Brian, I have the Redwall map here, where are we going, the Badlands?
BRIAN: We're not going to the Badlands Paula, we could get caught by rats.
PAULA: What about the Toadlands?
BRIAN: And get caught by toads? Paula Danziger!
PAULA: The Openlands?
BRIAN: Certainly not my dear.
Paula throws the map in the back of the car.
PAULA: : I quit, if you're not going to tell me! What things are you interested in?
BRIAN: Music. I could not live without music.
Brian breaks into italian opera, much to Paula's surprise.
Music is important when I'm writing Redwall poems. Kids say to me, "There's music in that poem!" I say, "Yes there is, now see if you can make your own!"
PAULA: Why did you choose to write about rodents?
BRIAN: I don't write about rodents Paula, I write about woodland animals!
PAULA: They're 4 feet long, they're furry, mice, rats, they're rodents.
BRIAN: No Paula, you don't understand. Animals are a lot better people than people are. The sly fox, the slippery snake. The reader identifies with the heroes and heroines. My main character is Martin the Warrior, who is the guiding spirit of the abbey. I'm taking you to one of the places where people love him.
The car pulls into the Royal School for the Blind, Liverpool.
Various clips are shown of Paula and Brian with the students.
The interview's last part takes place at the school's "ballpond".
Paula and Brian are submerged to chest level with lots of plastic balls.
PAULA: What does the school have to do with the stories?
BRIAN: I used to play here with the kids and enjoyed myself here. I used to read them stories in this ballpond.
PAULA: Your own stories?
BRIAN: No, I hadn't written them yet you see. This was when I had the idea for Redwall. People say, "You can see it as a picture." This is what I intended. For the pictures to go into the imaginations of blind children. They're very basic stories really. All they are is about the constant war between good and evil. And do you know what? Good always wins!
PAULA: It's good talking to you, but how are we ever going to get out of this ballpond?

Interview by Griff Rhys Jones, on the show Bookworm

The interview opens with fans talking about Redwall.
KATIE GWILTS: In Redwall, there are mice, rabbits, hares, squirrels, nice animals, like a safe haven.
SIAN HOGAN: The food is gorgeous, as you read it you feel really hungry.
MATTHEW LEWIS: The best thing abour the Redwall books is the fight at the end, the goodies and the baddies always have a fight at the end of the book and it takes about 30 pages maybe.
GRIFF RHYS JONES: 8 Redwall books have been written since 1986, classic tales like Watership down and the Hobbit, they are epic adventures steeped in old fashioned sentiment and set in a timeless world where good always overcomes evil.
We see Brian walking in the grounds of a ruined medieval building. The interview takes place here.
BRIAN: This is Stanley Park in Kirkdale, Liverpool. To me, this is Redwall. When I'm going to write a book I come here for inspiration to see the places I went to as a child. This is a magic land.
We see a boy dressed in a British school uniform walking round the grounds clutching a soccer ball by his side. Probably to signify Brian as a child.
BRIAN: I could stand here and gaze at the walls and imagine things like battles. Just look at the back here. This is some medieval abbey. So, once upon a time, long ago, far away, there was this abbey and the monks were mice. All the other woodland creatures, they all inhabit this world of mine.
We see Brian in front of a class of British schoolchildren. He stands before them, and recites the description of Cluny the Scourge from Redwall.
BRIAN: I've always been a folk singer so it's no trouble to me to get up to speak to children and I also like children. I think to myself, these fellows who write books and lock themselves away and hide from the world, what for? They might as well be working on a supermarket checkout! I like to talk to children because you get so much back off them.
GRIFF RHYS JONES: It was because of Brian's involvement with children that Redwall was born.
Brian walks into The Royal School for the Blind.
BRIAN: I became involved with the Royal School for the Blind when I used to play with the children and we'd have loads of fun. I sat down with them and I'd tell them stories. One time I thought I'd like to write them a story of the type I used to read when I was young. The books about heroes and heroines, great quests, battles, wars, the right and wrong of it all. That was how Redwall was born. I didn't intend them for publication, merely as a story to read to the children at the school. A mouse is the child and the child is trying to resolve something, to be better, to be a hero. If the little mouse can, why can't the child? This is what I wrote about. The mouse overcoming everything but not without any magic. It's done by their own resolution. There's a moral there somewhere for them to pull themselves up by their bootstraps like Matthias and Mattimeo. They had to learn how to do those things. They have to learn to be warriors.
GRIFF RHYS JONES: What do you say to those people that say that children's books should be about real things that people do?
BRIAN: Rubbish! They get that all around them don't they? Teenage angst, divorce, technology. They don't want that. What they want is a little bit of escapism. Once upon a time, long ago, far away.
KATIE GWILTS: I think that Redwall is in everyone's minds, it's a place where you can go if things aren't working out.
NEIL McDONNELL: Modern writing's usually about people under pressure from exams and that. I don't like that. I want to be taken away from that.
MICHAEL DRAPALA: Redwall Abbey, it's seven miles high, six feet under, next to the gnome at the bottom of the garden, it's anywhere your imagination will accept it as being.

A very special thanks to my good friend Katherine Birkett for transcribing these interviews from British broadcasts.